1 online resource (xviii, 289 pages)

In a sensitive and compelling account of the lives of those at the very bottom of Indian society, Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany explore the construction of the Untouchables as a social and political category, the historical background which led to such a definition, and their position in India today. The authors argue that, despite efforts to ameliorate their condition on the part of the state, a considerable edifice of discrimination persists on the basis of a tradition of ritual subordination. Even now, therefore, it still makes sense to categorise these people as 'Untouchables'. The book promises to make a major contribution to the social and economic debates on poverty, while its wide-ranging perspectives will ensure an interdisciplinary readership from historians of South Asia, to students of politics, economics, religion and sociology

Includes bibliographical references (pages 272-283) and index

Who are the Untouchables? -- The question of the 'Harijan atrocity' -- Religion, politics and the Untouchables from the nineteenth century to 1956 -- Public policy I : adverse discrimination and compensatory discrimination -- Public policy II : the anti-poverty programs -- The new Untouchables proletariat : a case study of the Faridabad stone quarries -- Untouchable politics and Untouchable politicians since 1956 -- The question of reservation : the lives and careers of some scheduled caste MPs and MLAs -- Subordiantion, poverty and the state in modern India

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